Boundary Disputes: A Practitioner's Handbook

Citation

Chynoweth, P. (2004), "Boundary Disputes: A Practitioner's Handbook", Structural Survey, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss.2004.11022aae.010

Boundary Disputes: A Practitioner's Handbook

Boundary Disputes: A Practitioner's Handbook

William HanburyEMIS Professional Publishing2003ISBN 1-85811-301-6£28

William Hanbury introduces boundary disputes as “a particularly painful form of litigation”. Few surveyors who have seen active service in this especially vicious form of urban warfare would disagree and they will surely instinctively welcome this new publication. It provides a summary of the relevant law in this area and pays particular attention to the legal principles that determine the correct position of a disputed boundary. By doing so it aims to “render clear that which is inherently vague” and thereby to provide “sound practical advice” for the resolution of disputes in situations where passions have often been raised to fever pitch.

The book's calm analysis of the law begins with the role of title documents (or “intrinsic” evidence) in helping to ascertain the position of boundaries. It discusses the limitations of this approach and goes on to consider the numerous other forms of documentary evidence (“extrinsic” evidence) that might be used. As the book is not primarily written for lawyers, a useful summary of the conveyancing process is also included at this point in order to place the various documents in their proper context. A separate chapter deals with the basic principles of land registration, insofar as these are relevant to boundary demarcation.

Other forms of extrinsic evidence are also considered including the oral testimony of witnesses and the significance of physical evidence on site. In this latter context, some of the well known presumptions, including the hedge and ditch rule and the ad medium filum principle are explained.

Specific attention is also paid to some particular boundary situations. These include party walls, projecting eaves and footings and (for reasons which are not entirely clear) mineral rights and mines. The section on party walls includes a short summary of the Party Wall etc Act 1996 and the Access to Neighbouring Land Act 1992 also receives a brief mention. The law of adverse possession (or “squatters” rights') is dealt with in a separate chapter and this concludes the book's treatment of the substantive legal issues.

A number of procedural issues are also addressed. A brief outline of relevant court procedures is provided and other dispute resolution mechanisms are summarised. The standard court remedies of damages, injunction and declaration are then introduced and there is also a brief discussion of court costs and conditional fee agreements. Finally, the book ends with appendices containing a number of precedents and extracts from relevant statutes.

The breadth of coverage is certainly comprehensive and, as such, this publication provides an extremely useful introduction to the law relating to boundary disputes for anyone who is new to the subject. It is also well structured and thoroughly referenced which makes it an ideal starting point for those who then wish to study aspects of the subject in more detail. Although the book is unashamedly a legal rather than a surveying text it will be of particular interest to surveyors who are seeking an outline sketch of the legal rules underlying the practice of boundary dispute resolution.

It has to be said however that this is a very slim volume (105 pages excluding the appendices). For this reason its treatment of the various topics is inevitably superficial and is unlikely to appeal to the specialist boundary practitioner who is already well served by some of the more detailed works in the field including Trevor Aldridge's Boundaries, Walls and Fences and Colin Sara's Boundaries and Easements.

The inclusion of procedural material on the Party Wall etc Act 1996 (including precedent notices and the full text of the Act in the appendices) in a short text on boundary demarcation is also perhaps surprising. The book limits itself to disputes about the position of boundaries and therefore, quite rightly, makes no reference to the law of easements, nuisance or what are generally described by surveyors as “neighbourly matters”. Why then the rather incongruous (and inevitably inadequate) treatment of construction-related party wall procedures?

Despite these minor observations the book certainly achieves its aim of imposing a clear framework for those involved in the vague and messy business of resolving boundary disputes. It briefly addresses the relevant areas of law and facilitates further reading where this is required. It is not a book for the hardened boundary warrior but is well suited to the reservist who is only called up on occasions and could usefully become the regulation issue battlefield manual for all new recruits to this challenging area of work.

Paul Chynoweth